'ECSTATIC' JARDINE COMES SECOND IN CLASS

AS Richard Burns became only the second Brit to take the World Championship, the Sportinglife.com/The Times Honda Integra Type R of Tony Jardine and Kevin Eason completed the final stage of the Network Q Rally of Great Britain to take 47th overall in an event that saw world title contenders Colin McRae and Tommi Makinen crash out on the first leg.

AS Richard Burns became only the second Brit to take the World Championship, the Sportinglife.com/The Times Honda Integra Type R of Tony Jardine and Kevin Eason completed the final stage of the Network Q Rally of Great Britain to take 47th overall in an event that saw world title contenders Colin McRae and Tommi Makinen crash out on the first leg.

Ascot-based ITV F1 analyst Jardine was ecstatic to have finished the event, particularly considering that co-driver Eason was taking part in his first Network Q. He said: " I can't get my head round the fact that we finished so well.

"Today was the sting in the tail of the event. The Honda took some colossal bumps and bangs this morning, but incredibly the only damage sustained all weekend was a broken indicator bulb."

The European Aviation-backed crew has benefitted from the technical expertise of British American Racing Honda technicians Andrew ‘George' Markham and John ‘Digger' Digby who joined regular engineers from Mike Brown Rally Services and Tim Rogers from Clover Leaf Cars in Ascot.

"The sense of team spirit down here is absolutely brilliant," added Jardine.

"Everyone has worked so hard preparing for the event, and I know I have certainly never felt so tense before a rally before.

"We have all had a lot of sleepless nights leading up to this and are looking forward to celebrating our result."